Sustainable Farming

REAP - Canada in Nova Scotia

By Dr. David Patriquin

On Feb 18th, eight farmers from the Amherst area and two from
Maitland/Bramber met at the Hubbard farm near Oxford, N.S. to
discuss cooperating in some REAP style research and to form a
REAP-Nova Scotia chapter. Roger Samson (President of REAP) and
Dave Patriquin (a Professor at Dalhousie University and
scientific advisor to REAP) gave short presentations dealing with
the Ontario projects and "participatory Research
Approaches" respectively, following which there was a round
table discussion of local concerns and of possible REAP projects.
Six of the farmers had livestock based operations, one operated a
greenhouse, and two were vegetable producers. Two other farmers
joined the group subsequently.

Discussions carried on into the evening between Roger, Dave
and Charles Hubbard and the next day Roger, Dave and Rupert
Jannasch compiled the results in and wrote up a proposal for on
farm research which was immediately sent out to the farmers. The
projects are as follows:

I. Composting: Tests of 3 systems using either strips of raw
manure, composted manure or no manure. Farmers will choose the
one that suits them, and conduct field evaluations. A question to
be answered is whether or not turning is necessary.

II. Extended Grazing System: Extend the grazing period on both
ends, provide a mid-season use for manure, and under-seed kale to
avoid weed problems. Some of the farmers are already using
brassicas to extend grazing into November or even December. The
group will be experimenting with variants of the following
schemes:

Year 1 - Break sod/ incorporate manure/ plant forage rye in
August;

Year 2 - Graze rye in early May/ incorporate manure/ plant
kale under-sown with rye or red clover in June/ graze kale to
late fall;

Year 3 - Graze rye again or seed down cereal with forage mix
under-sown.

III .Hay/Pasture Improvement achieved by seeding in various
legumes, and by Voisin Grazing Management. Six farmers are
experimenting with Sonja clover, a newly released swedish type
with high promise for rotational grazing systems.

IV. Grains - Experiments will include oats and peas with
clove, under-sown, and fababeans with Ellette perennial ryegrass
under-sown.

V. Vegetables - One farmer will interseed crimson clover an
hairy vetch in asparagus after harvest and also do some
experiments with the rye mow-kill system.

Already the farmers are planning other experiments including
trials of oat and vetch forage, composting with worms and the use
of a finger weeder.